Rys’s soft laughter spread warmth inside my chest. The way his eyes crinkled and his smile softened made my heart skip a beat. Was this what a soulbond was like? Would I have felt this way without the connection that was apparently between us?
“Hey.” Rys tilted my face up, forcing me to look at his eyes again. “I know I dropped a huge bombshell on you last night.” He drew in an unsteady breath, and a little bit of me relaxed. Maybe I wasn’t the only one struggling to wrap their head around this. “I’ve had ten years to get used to the idea, and I won’t lie to you…” His grip tightened a touch, as though I might run at whatever he said next. “For the majority of those years, I hated that you, of all fucking people, were my soulmate.”
And he was right. I did want to back away from him because that hurt. More than I was expecting, because I’d known how he felt about me up until he’d learnt the truth about what had happened in that forest.
Rys wouldn’t let me go, though, wrapping one arm around my back and holding me close. “I was wrong,” he said gently, loosening his hold so I could escape if I wanted.
I didn’t.
“But looking back, I wasn’t ready for what telling you would mean. We were way too young to make the sort of commitment a soulbond requires.”
I swallowed, heart in my throat as I asked, “And now?”
“Now,” he murmured, leaning down to give me a soft, lingering kiss that wasn’t anywhere near enough. “I think we need longer than the five minutes Max has given us to talk and decide what we both want.”
The reminder that Max was out there, and that I had a job to do, had me reluctantly easing myself out of Rys’s grip and away from the warmth of his hard body.
And there was also the fact that I was leaving as soon as we found who was doing this. Maybe sooner if more victims turned up elsewhere.
Was that still my plan?
Rys was right, we needed to sit down and talk this through. I’d lived this long without knowing I washis—Goddess, even saying it in my head sent a shiver through me—but that didn’t mean I had to act on it now, just because he’d told me.
“I need to go.”
He nodded and we walked to the door in silence.
I was aware of him behind me, close but not touching, and my fingers itched with the need to have one last touch before we went our separate ways.
I licked my lips.
One last taste.
Turning quickly, I pinned him against the wall and kissed him. If I’d expected to surprise him, I was sorely mistaken because he welcomed me like he’d fully expected me to maul him in my hallway.
His groan lit my blood on fire, his hands anchoring me in place as I kissed him for all I was worth until I finally had to draw back to breathe.
“So we’ll talk, yeah?”
“Yes.” He smiled, small and intimate and one I suspected not many people got to see. “We will.” Reaching behind me for the door handle, he leant in and ran his nose along the column of my throat. I felt him breathe in deep, then sigh softly. “I’ll see you later, Gabriel.”
And then he was gone, easing past me and out the door too fast for me to follow.
Max beeped the horn, making me jump, and I hurried to slip my shoes on and get out to his car.
Sliding into the passenger seat, I held up a finger the moment he opened his mouth. “Can we save the interrogation I know is coming my way until I’ve had a coffee and something to eat?Please?” I turned what I hoped was my most pleading expression his way, and Max rolled his eyes.
“Fine. I’ll stop on the way to Blake’s house, but then we are talking, because last time I checked, you and my cousin hated each other. So coffee, first. Then you can explain to me what the fuck happened between us leaving the club last night and whatever I just witnessed this morning.”
Oh, yeah, couldn’t wait for that conversation.
* * *
Max eyedme from across the centre console as I finished telling him a summarised version of what had happened between me and Rys. I sipped the last of my coffee and waited for him to speak.
Obviously, I’d left out the bit about Rys and me beingsoulmates. I had a feeling Rys hadn’t mentioned that to many people, if any, and no way was I about to go telling everyone.
But Max wasn’t everyone. He was fast becoming one of my best friends here, and I wanted to confide insomeone. Being Rys’s cousin complicated matters though.
